Educating for the Great Conversation
Compulsory education is a contradiction in terms. It is impossible to force a person to learn. We can pass laws, enforce punishments, bribe, cajole, demand, and threaten,…
A Siberian Rebirth
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. At the end of Crime and…
More Than Money?
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. One of the more horrific scenes…
Motivations to Murder
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. Overhearing a young officer and a…
The False Promise of Money in “Crime and Punishment”
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. One of the fascinating questions Dostoevsky…
Dostoevsky on Descartes
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. Earlier in the semester we had…
Breadth versus Depth: Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. We are finishing our freshmen core…
A Genealogy of Christianity: Why I Teach Nietzsche at a Christian University
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. Christianity for Nietzsche was the greatest…
Questioners of the World, Unite!
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. Maybe the most influential text written…
Slavery as the Original Sin of America?
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. With religious arguments sanctioning slavery at…
The Reasons of Motivations: Teaching Kant to Freshmen
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. What should students make of Kant’s…
Beneath the Contract: On Hobbes, Locke, and The Social Contract
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. It is difficult for a person…
First Impressions and Ideas
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. This past week we read excerpts…
Religion and the Postmodern Student
For this semester I will be offering my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. By the second week…
A Teacher and Student’s Perspective on the War in Ukraine
In November 2021 I was invited to a Round Table Discussion organized by The International Relations Student Organization from Corvinus university of Budapest. The Topic of interest…